


Helpless.

by crimsoxcore



Series: racing hearts & ticking clocks - [higurashi oneshots and stories] [14]
Category: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni | Higurashi When They Cry
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt, F/F, Femslash, Fluff and Angst, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Mental Anguish, Sad Ending, Worry, the yamainu goons are indirectly mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-17 22:22:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15471393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimsoxcore/pseuds/crimsoxcore
Summary: Satoko wasn't stupid, and she knew Rika had been lying to her.





	Helpless.

Rika was hiding something from her. That, Satoko knew for a fact, and nothing could convince her otherwise.

But Rika denied it. No matter how often Satoko asked, Rika denied it - every single time. Satoko thought back to her old days, back when her older brother, Satoshi, was still around. This is why he left her, wasn't it?

She was trying. She was trying to be stronger for him. She believed it, she believed he would come back one day. She believed he would come home.

She was much stronger now. That was undeniable. But it wasn't enough. Rika still couldn't trust her enough to tell her what was going on. Satoko tried everything. She followed Rika so much it was almost creepy. She watched Rika talk to the outside of the window. Whether or not she was talking to anyone in particular, Satoko didn't know. But Satoko knew it was real, and that Rika was lying to her when she said it wasn't.

Thats what hurt the most out of this whole ordeal, she supposed. That Rika, her most dearest friend, lied to her. Not once, not twice, but over and over again. Why couldn't Rika trust her?

Satoko has heard enough of what Rika said to. She kept telling herself she had every right to be worried, and no longer cared about coming off as annoying. She just wanted Rika to tell her, tell her something, anything.

But Rika told her nothing.

She never even admitted to being down. She treated Satoko like she was imagining things when Satoko knew she wasn't. She knew she heard Rika say she'd be killed. She watched Rika plead to Tomitake-san to listen to her.

What happened to him, after he laughed off the little girl's words? He died. The exact day after, he scratched out his own throat. He died, just like Rika said he would.

Satoko couldn’t help but wonder - would this have been avoided if he listened to her?

Rika has lives on her shoulders, and she couldn’t tell Satoko about it.

At least Satoko wasn't the only one being lied to, and this comforted her, in its own twisted way. Rika lied to everyone. If Rika has confided in someone other than Satoko, then so be it. At least Satoko would be able to sleep at night knowing Rika wasn't alone in her despair.

But Rika told no one, and struggled alone.

She didn't even tell the police. Satoko knew the exact tactic she used, to. She wasn't stupid. Unlike people may think, Satoko Houjou was not stupid. She knew exactly how Rika had tried to dismiss the topic to Ooishi by making up the awkward lie about wetting herself. So that Ooishi would look like a pervert, pressing in on Rika's personal matters and back off.

That was the day it started. The day Satoko saw him, the strange man. She felt the feeling of being followed everywhere she went.

Again, Rika claimed to have no idea what she was talking about.

For a little while, Satoko was afraid that the men were after her. But then, a worse thought occurred. What if they were after Rika?

Later, after consulting her friends, trying to make an example to Rika; Satoko overheard a conversation between Rena and Mion that was the last straw. They were concerned about her.

Worried that Satoko was going nuerotic, from head trauma. Satoko was just trying to confide in her friends...! Why were they so worried about her?

Why me? What about Rika? Satoko wanted to scream.

That night, Satoko had spent hours laying in silence, trying not to cry. After a while, though, she heard a soft sobbing from the kitchen.

Wearily, she slowly stumbled in, only to see Rika crying, hunched in a corner. She looked so broken and alone there, and Satoko urged to comfort her, but she couldn't let Rika know she was up this late, and she couldn’t tell Rika about her own nightmares and insomnia. 

Why, you may ask?

Because; she didn't want Rika to worry about her, either.


End file.
